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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Features

The Difference Between Your Photography Portfolio and Your Blog

Chris Gampat
No Comments
02/03/2016
3 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Photojojo Iris Lens review product images (2 of 8)ISO 2001-60 sec at f - 2.8

In 2016, photographers have many different avenues and routes to reach their audience. There is Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, your blog, your website, etc. Each of them function like a little community with the sole goal of bringing attention back into you: the governing body. Each of them also have different purposes and may even attract different folks in the way that they function. But in that line of thought, each of them has to be inherently different too. Depending on the type of photographer you are, your Instagram shouldn’t be your website. If your Instagram has anything else besides portraiture, it’s going to confuse your potential clients and followers.

As it stands, an Instagram can’t really take the place of a dedicated website. To that end, your blog can’t either.

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony 70-200mm f4 OSS Eli Samuel portraits (2 of 2)ISO 32001-80 sec at f - 4.0

Blogs featuring your photography and your website function as two different mediums. If I go to someone’s Tumblr, which they’re using as their website, I’m almost 90% guaranteed to not know how to navigate the site in order to get to a shoot that you’re specifically talking about. Instead, I’m going to have to scroll through the feed to get immediately to that spot.

When you’re putting together your blog posts too, you’re usually only selecting and thinking about just the best photos from that specific shoot and not about photos that are inherently and imperatively portfolio worthy.

To that end, I’m probably not always seeing your best work.

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Rokinon 50mm f1.2 portraits of Asta (2 of 4)ISO 2001-1000 sec at f - 1.0

A dedicated photo website on the other hand actually has clean and specific navigation. Contact page? Got one! Your street photography? Right there! Your documentary projects? With a drop down menu I can probably click on one or the other.

So why is this important?

It has to do with attention spans. Editors, gallery curators and even potential clients are lazy and don’t always have lots of time to sit there and scroll through for forever to get to what they need to. It needs to be made simple from you. Squarespace for example can let you do this (and I’m not just saying this because they’re a current sponsor) so too can sites from Medium and PhotoShelter. The Phoblographer is a WordPress blog, and that can make both really well too.

Think of it this way: when you read a review, you’re guaranteed to scroll right down to the conclusions and if you want to or are intrigued enough, you’ll go through the rest. But otherwise, you probably won’t.

General folks will treat your portfolio the same way unless they possibly have some sort of emotional investment in your work. For that, you have the give them a reason to and also try to hook them on the front page. Your website or blog should be a different experience from all the rest of your platforms.

Model: Bec Fordyce
Model: Bec Fordyce

What motivates this? When folks apply to be featured on the site, I generally try to help them out in some ways. One photographer sent me 60 images because he didn’t know how to edit his work down. Granted, I wouldn’t do that for everyone, but his work is particularly great. At the same time, there are other photographers with archaic sites that look like they were built with Geocities. Even when going through the sites, it’s tough to actually find the good work.

In summation: put your best work forward on your website and put your best work from each shoot on your blog to give a bit more info and a behind the scenes look. Don’t make one site be a jack of all trades.

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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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